Rob Conery on the outdoors: Winter wonders

With the cold and snow inundating our little sandbar, let's take time out to celebrate some of the colorful local and regional characters that keep the winter sports scene interesting.

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By Rob Conery

capecodtimes.com

By Rob Conery

Posted Mar. 4, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Rob Conery

Posted Mar. 4, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

With the cold and snow inundating our little sandbar, let's take time out to celebrate some of the colorful local and regional characters that keep the winter sports scene interesting.

Bode Miller took bronze in the Olympic super-G in Sochi. It was his sixth skiing medal at his fourth, and likely final, Winter Games.

Miller's legacy is complex. He is the most decorated — and easily the most talented — American skier of all time. But his detractors are many. Miller is an outspoken free spirit who grew up in a cabin in New Hampshire, sans electricity.

He is also one of five skiers in history to win a World Cup race in all five Alpine disciplines — downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined — events usually dominated by specialists. He has won 33 World Cup events and, in 2005 and 2008, the overall World Cup title.

Many competitive skiers consider the Olympics, while not exactly a freak show, at least a colorful diversion every four years, where medal results hinge disproportionately on situationalism and chance. Purists consider the World Cup, a season-long points competition, with events held on different hills in different countries, the true measure of a champion's greatness.

Miller simply rubs some people the wrong way. He upsets the staid Europeans, for many of whom skiing is their national sport, with his irreverence and his unconventional, edge-of-chaos technique.

He equally confounds Americans when he does things like split with the U.S. Ski Team to train solo (he has since rejoined). He drives to events in a custom RV where he lives during the season, shunning the establishment and hanging out with a trusted bro.

He first medaled in Nagano '98. In Turin 2006, he was accused of spending more time in Italian discos than on race courses and failed to medal, a problem that bothers him not in the least. He has admitted to racing while still "wasted" from the night before.

He is 36 now and likely has skied his last Olympic race. By turns crusty, friendly, outspoken, and gregarious, ex-hippie Miller cares only for speed, pushing guts and élan to the forefront. Medals and podiums don't excite him.

He has said, "You want to win, but you want to win by skiing a race you're proud of."

In snowboarding, where the United States took its first three gold medals in Sochi, you may have recognized a familiar voice during the telecasts. Todd Richards of Paxton, Massachusetts, was there announcing for NBC.

Richards has ties to the Cape and won the skateboard contest at the Yarmouth Seaside Festival in 1989.

He would later take many snowboarding championships, including twice winning the U.S. Open, the sport's most prestigious showcase. (Held in Vermont since 1982, the event was uprooted to Vail, Colo. in 2013).

Richards invented a revolutionary for the era trick called the Wet Cat, a 900-degreee spin that propelled him into the Nagano Olympics.

Snowboarding is huge business now. The sport's icon, Shaun White (nickname Red Zeppelin) earns millions, but Richards cut his teeth at a time when the sport was viewed with a mixture of fear and loathing by the ski establishment.

In a nascent sport that lacked a cohesive structure, Richards has been able to slipstream into a viable career, pioneering a job and lifestyle that had never really existed before.

Despite being an Olympian and a decorated world champion, with his skate punk background, he retains an outsider mentality with the heart of a prankster. Todd Richards stories are legion. Like the time he decided to run a goof at a big industry trade show.

As snowboarding's mainstream integration accelerated in the early 90s, dozens of companies sprang up, virtually overnight, started not by core riders like Tom Sims and Jake Burton, but by venture capitalists. Speculators flooded the market with cheap product and flashy gear of dubious quality. Riders joked that in this new era of hyper-growth, virtually anyone could get sponsored.

Richards decided to use the trade show to test this hypothesis, so he sent a buddy — with decidedly limited snowboard chops — up to one of the shiny new booths.

Coached to name outrageous tricks he could supposedly perform, and to "just keep dropping my name," Richards' buddy walked away with a full equipment sponsorship.

To round out the joke, they positioned a photographer underneath a modest little jump, and snapped a shot as Richard's buddy hopped a pathetic little air. Voila!

Decked out in this spurious outfit's latest equipment, the image became the company's new magazine ad.

Eventually the ruse was uncovered and the buddy returned the goods to the company's sales rep, but a legendary story was born.

Even closer to home, the Centerville-bred Jones brothers have been busy. Jeremy is a world-class snowboarder; Todd and Steve co-founded Teton Gravity Research, a Jackson Hole, Wyo.-based ski film company.

They recently wrapped production on "Higher," due out this fall, the third film in a snowboard trilogy featuring Jeremy's big mountain exploits.

TGR probably makes the best ski and snowboard films in the world, but they're still committed environmentalists. Jeremy is founder of Protect Our Winters, and has spoken before Congress, and TGR contributes to the 1 percent For The Planet movement, a group of companies that donate about $20 million a year to environmental causes.

They recently shot some scenes on the Cape for "Higher." They rounded up some vintage Burton Backhill snowboards and recreated Jeremy's early days. From snow-covered Cape golf courses to the Rockies, the Alps and even the Himalaya, the Jones brothers have continued to seek new lines.

But they've never forgotten their Cape roots. Todd told me that when he visits the Cape today, "I still take the long way so I can drive by Craigville Beach."

Puritan Clothing in Hyannis sells skis, equipment and outdoor clothing. The shop also rents ski packages starting at $30 per day, midweek, and they tune, mount and wax skis in their shop.

The Boarding House in Hyannis also offers tuning services: $15 for a hot wax, $15 for edge sharpening and they're currently running a special on snowboards, 20 percent off all 2014 models.

The Cape Cod Ski Club is accepting new members and sponsors a variety of trips from midweek bus trips — donuts included — to longer weekend and even international jaunts. Individual memberships are $47.

And even without crossing the bridge, you can sample many of the Olympic events right here. It's not widespread, and no one is confusing this place with Lake Placid, but if you look in the right places, you can see snowboarders building jumps ("kickers" in the parlance), and cross-country skiers sliding through silent pines in the wooded trails around Nickerson State Park.

You can play hockey on the frozen ponds and bogs, try speedskating or figure skating at the indoor rinks, and even check out the Cape Cod Curling Club in Falmouth to try your hand in a "bonspiel."

There are many ways to embrace the outdoors during this seemingly never-ending winter.

Contributing writer Rob Conery can be contacted at robconery@yahoo.com.